Do we stay in DC or move to Baltimore?

[Anonymous]

I’m the there is hope for the future of the entire city poster from earlier. I think Brandon Scott deserves a chance to prove that he is different, pushing for and hiring the first city administrator is a good first sign. More importantly, having the first non-corrupt city comptroller in decades could be a game changer. I went to Hopkins with Bill Henry and he is a smart, honest guy.

I lived in Barry’s dc and in Philly in the dark days before Rendell, pretty sure people were equally pessimistic about both cities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, have you considered Mount Washington? It also has walk ability, so,e great restaurants, and the other well-regarded elementary/middle school combo in North Baltimore.

If you drew a boundary that ended at Mount Washington to the north, Remington to the South, York Road to the east, and Greenspring Road / Druid Hill Park to the west it would rival almost any comparably sized parcel from DC to NYC in terms of parks, restaurants and bars, other cultural amenities, and housing stock. Many people just associate Baltimore with tightly packed rowhomes like in Federal Hill and Canton, but that area of North Baltimore is totally different and very special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can tell who the Baltimorons are by how much they have to type to justify their decisions for living in Baltimore.

Don't drink the koolaid. Property barely appreciates above inflation (negative returns after factoring in huge taxes and insurance bills). Crime has exploded over the last 5 years.

The city is getting worse.

Has crime in DC increased or decreased in the past 5 years?

Crime has increased in a lot of places, but that doesn't change the fact that baltimore's crime rates are through the roof. Baltimore's violent crime rate is way worse than DC's.

As usual, Baltimoron's will try to come up with every excuse in the book. Name how many cities have 300+ murders. DC has 1/2 the number of total murders compared to Baltimore.

When you're baseline level for crime is a lot lower compared to Baltimore's, it takes far less numbers of crimes to increase crime rates because percent changes are a lot more sensitive when your denominator is a lot smaller than Baltimore's.

Everyone knows Baltimore is going down the tubes and that crime is out of control in Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure. I bought in Station North two blocks away from Penn Station. I actually rented for a year at Nelson Kohl, the apartment literally across from Penn Station, to make sure I actually liked the area and could stomach the commute to Union Station to get to the Hill every day. The commute was a breeze if you don't mind being on the train for an hour in the morning (which most DMV commuters do by the way but they also pay 2 times the rent/mortgage, but I digress).

My hard boundary was not anywhere above North Avenue (incase I had to stay for late votes in and in turn had to walk home from Penn late at night) or anywhere too far in to Mt. Vernon because I wanted to buy a home and not a condo. So it was pretty much concentrated primarily in the Station North neighborhood. Homes sell for anywhere from $180-400k there, which made it really attractive, particularly on a Hill salary.

Thanks! I never quite grew out of loving trains, so spending an hour on the train each way is kind of a feature to me, not a bug. Especially if, as you mention, I'd be spending an hour commuting anyway, which isn't hard to do in the DMV. I commuted by train in Chicago long ago and loved it.

How crowded are the MARC trains? I assume it's not bad at all leaving out of Penn Station?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent out the condo and buy in Baltimore

This. Buy in suburbs - Elliot city, hunt valley, sparks, fallston. Far enough away from the city to avoid high property taxes and crime, close enough for a commute. Don’t live anywhere else in Baltimore.

It's Ellicott City, and this advice is bad. There are great options in Baltimore City as well as in the suburbs.

Also, to the other poster, none of these burbs listed here went for Trump in 2016 or 2020 (thank god) except for Fallston, which is in Harford County. Don't move there. The rest are all in either Howard (slight over 70% for Biden) or Baltimore County (well over 60 percent for Biden). Baltimore County has its MAGA areas, but still consistently goes blue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can tell who the Baltimorons are by how much they have to type to justify their decisions for living in Baltimore.

Don't drink the koolaid. Property barely appreciates above inflation (negative returns after factoring in huge taxes and insurance bills). Crime has exploded over the last 5 years.

The city is getting worse.

Has crime in DC increased or decreased in the past 5 years?

Crime has increased in a lot of places, but that doesn't change the fact that baltimore's crime rates are through the roof. Baltimore's violent crime rate is way worse than DC's.

As usual, Baltimoron's will try to come up with every excuse in the book. Name how many cities have 300+ murders. DC has 1/2 the number of total murders compared to Baltimore.

When you're baseline level for crime is a lot lower compared to Baltimore's, it takes far less numbers of crimes to increase crime rates because percent changes are a lot more sensitive when your denominator is a lot smaller than Baltimore's.

Everyone knows Baltimore is going down the tubes and that crime is out of control in Baltimore.

You are weirdly obsessed with Baltimore for someone who doesn’t live here. Who woo joe listen to someone who spits off endlessly on something they have no personal interest in . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure. I bought in Station North two blocks away from Penn Station. I actually rented for a year at Nelson Kohl, the apartment literally across from Penn Station, to make sure I actually liked the area and could stomach the commute to Union Station to get to the Hill every day. The commute was a breeze if you don't mind being on the train for an hour in the morning (which most DMV commuters do by the way but they also pay 2 times the rent/mortgage, but I digress).

My hard boundary was not anywhere above North Avenue (incase I had to stay for late votes in and in turn had to walk home from Penn late at night) or anywhere too far in to Mt. Vernon because I wanted to buy a home and not a condo. So it was pretty much concentrated primarily in the Station North neighborhood. Homes sell for anywhere from $180-400k there, which made it really attractive, particularly on a Hill salary.

Thanks! I never quite grew out of loving trains, so spending an hour on the train each way is kind of a feature to me, not a bug. Especially if, as you mention, I'd be spending an hour commuting anyway, which isn't hard to do in the DMV. I commuted by train in Chicago long ago and loved it.

How crowded are the MARC trains? I assume it's not bad at all leaving out of Penn Station?

NP. You should have no problem with crowding at Penn Station, and if you board at the major hubs (like Penn Station and BWI), you get the benefit of using the express trains if you are able to dictate your own work schedule reasonably enough.

Only issue with the MARC is that in bad weather (meaning either very high heat or snow/ice), the Amtrak trains will take priority on the tracks. I often just plan on grabbing the Amtrak in bad weather to save myself the headache, which is just fine with our budget since the MARC passes are such a good deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent out the condo and buy in Baltimore

This. Buy in suburbs - Elliot city, hunt valley, sparks, fallston. Far enough away from the city to avoid high property taxes and crime, close enough for a commute. Don’t live anywhere else in Baltimore.

It's Ellicott City, and this advice is bad. There are great options in Baltimore City as well as in the suburbs.

Also, to the other poster, none of these burbs listed here went for Trump in 2016 or 2020 (thank god) except for Fallston, which is in Harford County. Don't move there. The rest are all in either Howard (slight over 70% for Biden) or Baltimore County (well over 60 percent for Biden). Baltimore County has its MAGA areas, but still consistently goes blue.

Northern Baltimore county, including sparks, hunt valley is definitely red, the southern part of the county is blue and outweighs them in elections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure. I bought in Station North two blocks away from Penn Station. I actually rented for a year at Nelson Kohl, the apartment literally across from Penn Station, to make sure I actually liked the area and could stomach the commute to Union Station to get to the Hill every day. The commute was a breeze if you don't mind being on the train for an hour in the morning (which most DMV commuters do by the way but they also pay 2 times the rent/mortgage, but I digress).

My hard boundary was not anywhere above North Avenue (incase I had to stay for late votes in and in turn had to walk home from Penn late at night) or anywhere too far in to Mt. Vernon because I wanted to buy a home and not a condo. So it was pretty much concentrated primarily in the Station North neighborhood. Homes sell for anywhere from $180-400k there, which made it really attractive, particularly on a Hill salary.

Thanks! I never quite grew out of loving trains, so spending an hour on the train each way is kind of a feature to me, not a bug. Especially if, as you mention, I'd be spending an hour commuting anyway, which isn't hard to do in the DMV. I commuted by train in Chicago long ago and loved it.

How crowded are the MARC trains? I assume it's not bad at all leaving out of Penn Station?

PP here. It's funny you should ask that, because that was a concern for me too at first; but nope, getting on the train at Penn isn't crowded at all in the morning, so it's easy to get a seat in the quiet car. The bulk of the riders are picked up at Halethorpe, BWI, and Odenton. I was actually amazed at how many people take MARC in to DC every morning when I first moved up here.

The evening commute back can be packed though depending on which train you head back on.

Also, MARC is FAR MORE RELIABLE than metro. I commuted to DC for about year and only had one instance where I was late because of issues with MARC, aside from that it was literally easy peasy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. You should have no problem with crowding at Penn Station, and if you board at the major hubs (like Penn Station and BWI), you get the benefit of using the express trains if you are able to dictate your own work schedule reasonably enough.

Only issue with the MARC is that in bad weather (meaning either very high heat or snow/ice), the Amtrak trains will take priority on the tracks. I often just plan on grabbing the Amtrak in bad weather to save myself the headache, which is just fine with our budget since the MARC passes are such a good deal.

Thanks. I'm a fed, so I'm hoping that if the weather is bad enough to disrupt train service, we'll be allowed telework that day anyway. That probably happens more for snow than for heat, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent out the condo and buy in Baltimore

This. Buy in suburbs - Elliot city, hunt valley, sparks, fallston. Far enough away from the city to avoid high property taxes and crime, close enough for a commute. Don’t live anywhere else in Baltimore.

It's Ellicott City, and this advice is bad. There are great options in Baltimore City as well as in the suburbs.

Also, to the other poster, none of these burbs listed here went for Trump in 2016 or 2020 (thank god) except for Fallston, which is in Harford County. Don't move there. The rest are all in either Howard (slight over 70% for Biden) or Baltimore County (well over 60 percent for Biden). Baltimore County has its MAGA areas, but still consistently goes blue.

Northern Baltimore county, including sparks, hunt valley is definitely red, the southern part of the county is blue and outweighs them in elections.

Fair enough--we've hit my limit of knowledge on Maryland politics, was more just responding to the sweeping statement that seemed to call all of the Baltimore suburbs MAGA land.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I’m not sure how you define suburbia, but this place right by Roland Park is gorg and walking distance to a few good restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shops. Zoned to the good elementary and middle school as well as right next to several great private schools. If you’re worried about investments, areas like this are likely a better bet than Fells.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/216-Oakdale-Rd-Baltimore-MD-21210/36589560_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

Holy cow, what a gorgeous place

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can tell who the Baltimorons are by how much they have to type to justify their decisions for living in Baltimore.

Don't drink the koolaid. Property barely appreciates above inflation (negative returns after factoring in huge taxes and insurance bills). Crime has exploded over the last 5 years.

The city is getting worse.

Has crime in DC increased or decreased in the past 5 years?

A generation ago you could reasonably compare DC and Baltimore on stats like crime rates. Not anymore. The cities have become far more different than alike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. It's funny you should ask that, because that was a concern for me too at first; but nope, getting on the train at Penn isn't crowded at all in the morning, so it's easy to get a seat in the quiet car. The bulk of the riders are picked up at Halethorpe, BWI, and Odenton. I was actually amazed at how many people take MARC in to DC every morning when I first moved up here.

The evening commute back can be packed though depending on which train you head back on.

Also, MARC is FAR MORE RELIABLE than metro. I commuted to DC for about year and only had one instance where I was late because of issues with MARC, aside from that it was literally easy peasy.

Thanks again. This is all very helpful.

About Station North—how is it other than its proximity to Penn Station? Is it walkable to things other than the station? Are the areas around it okay, or is it more of an oasis in a desert of "don't go there?"

[Anonymous]

You can tell who the thoughtful and intelligent sources of information are by who uses the term "Baltimoron".